U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Tuesday evening that the United States owes its existence to the Jewish foundations formed in the Land of Israel, speaking at the opening of the International Conference on Israeli Heritage in Judea and Samaria at Herodium. The event was organized by the Ministry of Heritage and Minister Amichai Eliyahu.
Huckabee said his role is not only to represent the United States in Israel, but also to explain to Americans why Israel matters to their own country. Addressing Eliyahu, he said, “This is unquestionably your heritage, but Mr. Minister, it is also the heritage of the United States. Without Israel, without the Jewish foundation, there would be no America.”
He added, “We owe our very existence to what happened in this land,” and framed the connection between the United States and the Land of Israel as both historical and spiritual. His remarks came hours after President Donald Trump said that without U.S. intervention, Israel would not have existed, declaring, “Without the U.S., without me, there would not have been Israel.”
Eliyahu responded that some claim Israel is isolated or that ties with America are strained, while others try to erase Jewish history through UNESCO. He pointed to Herodium, the international archaeological conference, and a 2,000-year-old pool that has been restored, saying this is Israel’s answer to critics, “not in words, but in deeds.”
